The project for testing hydrogen-powered regional rail transportation has received approval from the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport. It includes money from the PNRR totalling 37.4 million euros for this hydrail project.
The construction of industrial facilities will cost 13.4 million euros, while the purchase of adequate rolling stock would cost 24 million euros. The Lecce-Gallipoli, Novoli-Gagliano, and Casarano-Gallipoli railway lines will also be impacted. The interventions must be assigned by the end of June, and the works must be finished by June 2026, to adhere to the obligatory funding timeline.
The Regional Councilor for Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Anita Maurodinoia, said, “We are pleased that the candidature of the project developed with FSE and presented by the Region to MIT at the end of January, has been admitted to funding. The testing of hydrogen for regional rail transport is part of a broader strategy of sustainable development and regional decarbonization.
We have thus accomplished a common goal for this administration, which is a starting point to make Puglia increasingly green and an active protagonist of hydrogen experimentation, including in transport. “Now, in fact, we are confident that we have achieved this goal,” continued the exponent of the regional council. “There is already explicit talk of FSE as an implementing subject and of Salento as an area of experimentation, as it is not yet completely electrified.
